


I Got You

by deniallisstrong



Series: Ziam Tumblr Drabbles (ifigureditout) [25]
Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Fluff, Halloween, Haunted Houses, M/M, Meet-Cute, hand holding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-02
Updated: 2017-11-02
Packaged: 2019-01-28 15:28:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12609724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deniallisstrong/pseuds/deniallisstrong
Summary: Zayn freaks out, heart pounding as he screams, chest about to implode from the fear suddenly pressing into him. He runs faster and faster, dodging everyone and everything he can until he slams into something hard.“Ouch,” he moans, rubbing at his chest. He squints, trying to distinguish if that could really be Louis. It doesn’t feel like Louis. Someone larger, broader, with dark hair. And, well, very muscle-y, based on how painful that was.“Sorry,” Zayn yells as the man in front of him flips, wild eyes as he looks on for another monster.Zayn gulps, taking in his options. Continuing alone, trying not to die or freak out (or both) or… He lets out a little breath, building up his courage. These people seem nice enough. And capable enough to keep him safe.“Erm, can I join you?” Zayn asks to the man right ahead of the broad boy.“Follow along, mate,” the man with the spikey blonde hair calls behind him.(Or, where Zayn and Louis join Liam and Niall inside of the haunted houses. And maybe Zayn has a problem keeping his hands away from Liam's.)





	I Got You

**Author's Note:**

> I know this is a bit belated (especially since I’m already seeing a ton of Christmas stuff) but I wanted to write it, so sorry. Happy Halloween, everyone! (The haunted houses I describe are loosely based on houses/scare zones this year from Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights)

“No,” Zayn says flatly the first time Louis asks, not even giving it a shadow of a thought. 

The second time he asks, Louis gets the same response. The third? The same. However, after the fourth, the fifth, the  _sixth_ time Louis asks, Zayn sighs a little longer before his answer.

The seventh time, Zayn bites his lip, finally considering the idea. “I don’t want to,” he responds matter-of-factly. 

Louis downturns his head, trying to hide his pout of resignation before Zayn continues, “ _But...”_

Louis forces himself to look up at this, a sudden glimmer of hope shining bright in his eyes.

“I can tell you really want to. More than that, for some reason, you really want  _me_ to go with  _you._ So.”

Zayn lets out one final breath before giving one single nod. “Fine. We can go. But I’m not paying.” 

Louis accepts instantly, his instant grin giving away how badly he wants this. 

“And I get to pick the houses we go into.” 

Louis wavers for half a second on this--considering the scenario, Zayn supposes, about the worst that could happen--but he still nods. “Deal, mate.”

Louis’ wolfish smile still hasn’t eased off of his face, a fact that unsettles Zayn. Because of all the times he’s ever seen that grin, it’s never meant good news for him. “What?” He asks suspiciously, squinting his eyes as he sizes up his best friend. 

“I already got us tickets for tonight, so that better be what you’re wearing.” He looks Zayn up and down for a moment before nodding in approval. Quickly glancing at his watch, he says easily, “We have to leave in 10 minutes.”

Zayn shakes his head, rolling his eyes. He should be more surprised, and yet... somehow he’s not. He gives Louis a playful little shove as he moves to the fridge. “So you were gonna force me to go then?” He asks, roaming around the refrigerator to look for something to munch on in the car.

“Nah,” Louis shrugs. “I just hoped it’d make you feel guilty enough to go.”

Zayn chuckles as he pulls out an apple. “You don’t know me at all if you think  _that’d_ convince me to go into some fucking haunted houses. I do what I want, Lou.”

Louis scoffs. “Yeah, right. If I gave you the Bambi eyes, you’d come running,” Louis smiles, quickly grabbing the apple from Zayn’s hand. He bites into it before he coos, “’Cause you  _love_ me.” 

Zayn doesn’t look at Louis, instead only looking for another apple as he bites on his lip to stop the fondness from showing through. “Don’t rub it in” is all he grumbles before finally finding some still edible leftovers hiding in the back of the fridge. “Now come on. I don’t wanna be running late and have you drive like even more of a madman than you already normally do.”

* * *

\---

Zayn purses his lips at the list, trying to take in all the names of the houses and decide which one is most likely to give him the least amount of nightmares. 

“The...” Zayn rolls his head around his neck, already feeling wound up from the adrenaline he knows he’s going to feel in approximately .1 seconds. “The water one doesn’t sound too bad?”

Louis snorts. “Even though you can’t swim?”

Zayn considers this. “Yeah, maybe not the best thought out plan,” he admits slowly. “But I’m sure there’s no real swimming involved.”

He forces himself to take a few steps closer to the house, knowing that if he doesn’t just get himself moving, he’ll never go. 

Seeing this, Louis runs ahead, but not before grabbing Zayn’s hand to drag him along. 

“Come on, Z,” Louis yells behind him as they make their way through the already thickening crowd. “Time to get this over with.”

The house--well, it’s worse than even Zayn feared.

Dark (which he  _was_ expecting), all sorts of things hitting him in the face as he tried to run through and keep up with Louis (unexpected), and the scare actors specifically targeting him each and every time (expected, but also 10 times more terrifying than Zayn had thought it would be).

“I didn’t know they’d have  _water zombies?”_ Is all Zayn can think to pant out as soon as they finally make it out of the hellhole of a house. “Can zombies even breathe underwater?” He gets out, bending down to rest his forearms on his legs. “Like, where are they gonna get brains when they’re under the sea?”

Louis chuckles, also sounding just as breathless but not quite as terrified. “Don’t know, mate. Bet you could go ask them.”

Zayn’s eyes widen at that. “You couldn’t fucking pay me enough to go back in there.”

Louis laughs a little too gleefully before he chirps, “What next then, Zayno? You call the shots today, man.”

“Erm,” he mumbles. “I guess we can do the alien one next? I like aliens.”

Zayn knows he’s basically jinxing himself by saying that, but it’s too late--Louis is pulling him forward once more.

Halfway in the maze, running from the freakiest alien he could ever imagine, it dawns on him that he brought this on himself. Maybe he really  _should_ have Louis pick the houses, not him. Then he’d at least have someone else to blame other than himself. 

Speaking of Louis... Zayn flips around, suddenly realizing the cold, empty air that surrounds him. He’s completely and utterly alone, Louis not even in his line of sight (or hearing) anymore. 

Zayn freaks out, heart pounding as he screams, chest about to implode from the fear suddenly pressing into him. He runs faster and faster, dodging everyone and everything he can until he slams into something hard. 

“Ouch,” he moans, rubbing at his chest. He squints, trying to distinguish if that could really be Louis. It doesn’t  _feel_ like Louis. Someone larger, broader, with dark hair. And, well, very muscle-y, based on how painful that was. 

“Sorry,” Zayn yells as the man in front of him flips, wild eyes as he looks on for another monster.

Zayn gulps, taking in his options. Continuing alone, trying not to die or freak out (or both) or... He lets out a little breath, building up his courage. These people seem nice enough. And capable enough to keep him safe. 

And there’s something in the larger man’s hazelnut brown eyes that tells him to stay.

“Erm, can I join you?” Zayn asks to the lad right ahead of the broad boy. After a moment of thoughtful consideration, Zayn takes the man’s enthusiastic nod and flash of a smile as a good sign before the two of them are taking off in front of him.

“Follow along, mate,” the man with the spikey blonde hair calls behind him. 

Zayn complies, finding it easier now that he’s not alone anymore. The scare actors seem to be more interested in the large man rather than Zayn. He guesses it’s probably more fun to scare a big, burly guy rather than the more scrawny type that Zayn is.

Thank fucking God. 

Still, as they’re snaking their way through the hedge maze, on high alert since they’re  _well_ aware anyone could pop out at any second, one particularly gruesome alien monster  _thing_ jumps out in front of Zayn. Gulping as he feels his body tense up and heart race, he instinctively lurches his hand forward as he cries out, grabbing for the larger man’s hand as if he could really protect him.

As they clear the area, reaching the end of the maze, Zayn clears his throat, letting go as he avoids eye contact with the other lad.

Louis can  _never_ know, or he’ll never live this down. 

Too bad he’s waiting on the other end of the house, his eyes darting down to Zayn’s quick hand movement and then up to his face.

“Thanks, mates, for keeping my  _dear_   _friend, Zayn_ ,alright,” Louis says, clapping the two men on the back with a grin. 

Zayn internally rolls his eyes at Louis’ over-exaggeration.

“I’m Louis,” he introduces himself with a quick fist bump. 

“Niall,” the lad from the front answers, a huge laugh bubbling from his lips from Louis’ enthusiastic energy.

“Liam,” the other man--the man that Zayn hoped he would never have to see again--replies as he claps him on the back in turn.

“Well, nice to meet you lads,” Louis smiles, all charm. He looks like he’s about to spin on his heel and walk out when he pauses after a quick second. “Hey,” he says slowly. He makes it seem as though the thought just popped into his head (though Zayn knows there’s no way he hasn’t been planning it since the second he saw him exit that house). “Maybe we could all join together? Might be easier to get through if there’s more of us to distract them.”

“Great idea!” Niall beams, smiling as he looks down the line to Zayn, shying as far into the shadows as he can get. “Good with you?”

Zayn clears his throat, trying to find his voice again.

“It’s  _great_ with him,” Louis responds for Zayn, his devilish grin giving him away. 

“Awesome, let’s get going then!” Niall almost buzzes from excitement and a overstock of adrenaline. “We have a lot of houses to see before they close this thing.”

Waiting until Niall takes the lead to the next house, Liam walking up next to the boy to chat with him for a bit, Louis whispers, “I got you.”

Zayn rolls his eyes. “I can see that, my  _dear friend.”_

Louis shrugs. “Hey, now he knows we’re not together.” He gives the man a once over from behind, finally able to take him in all the way. “He’s really your type, isn’t he?” He counts off the details that Zayn is already  _all_  too aware of, couldn’t take his eyes off of them the whole way through the house. “His quiff, that little thing his eyes did when he smiled at me. And, well, you know.” Louis gestures up and down his whole body. “Nice physique.” 

Zayn groans, but Louis just laughs under his breath. “Well, don’t worry. Now you can grab his hand as many times as you want, mate.”

“Fuck off.”

\---

Zayn tries his best. Really, he does. He really  _doesn’t_ need to give any more material for Louis to tease him over later, but it’s not really  _his_ fault he can’t think when he’s fucking surrounded by beastly monsters that reach out for him, moaning about how they want brains or flesh or God-knows-what. 

And it’s not reallyhis fault that he kind of enjoys the lightheaded rush of adrenaline he gets when he strains his arm out to him.

And--well--maybe he’s just imagining things, but it’s not really his fault that Liam’s hand seems to stretch back a bit to meet Zayn’s when he feels fingers tickling along his palm.

But Zayn starts to get used to the feeling, of wanting Liam’s hand in his. And by the time they’re three houses in, Zayn’s starting to get the hang out of this whole haunted house thing. He gains a bit of courage, enough that he lunges for Liam’s hand at the first cue of danger. Because, well, who could blame him if he used the someone in front of him to make the scares a little less frightening and a little more comforting?

It’s just--well, the someone is a little more than just that. He’s  _Liam,_ and though Zayn has only known the man for about an hour now, the name  _Liam_ means more to him than just a  _someone_ now _._

But Zayn doesn’t really want to dwell on this at the moment, nor does he really have the ability to. Since, you know, there’s creatures coming after him at all times.

When Liam doesn’t seem worried at all by Zayn’s movement, Zayn takes a step closer, using Liam as a shield for all of the actors to come. “I’m gonna use your body to protect me, okay?” Zayn warns, shouting as close to his ear as he can get.

Zayn hears something above the music, above the sound effects, but he’s not sure if he heard it right. “You only want me for my body,” it sounds like Liam teases in a hush. Zayn blinks, confused, until Liam roars out a laugh. “Only kidding, Zayn, don’t worry,” Liam reassures when he gets no response. He quickly turns around to flash Zayn a smile, and just at this moment, a horrifying clown takes the chance to pop out from behind a crevice. 

Zayn only squeezes on Liam’s hand hard, too terrified to even air out a scream.

Liam must see the drainage of color on Zayn’s face, the way his eyes practically bulge out of his sockets, because as he turns back around, Liam seems calm and collected. “Get out of here,” Liam spits, sliding around the clown and his roaring chainsaw as Zayn follows suit, scampering behind Liam but never once loosening his grip on the man.

“I got you,” Liam reassures, squeezing Zayn’s hand.

Only at this motion does Zayn loosen his grip until it’s back to normal, no longer a boa constrictor but a garden snake.

They continue on like this for a few more minutes, Liam taking the brunt of the monsters (though a few decide to sneak up on Zayn from behind--Zayn almost throws a punch at them, but thankfully, Liam’s hand in his stops that from happening). It’s much easier like this, with Liam, though there’s a sort of restlessness that comes with it. Not from their surroundings, or even from  _Liam_ necessarily at all. Because Liam himself seems to be the easiest and most comfortable person Zayn’s ever been around. It’s just--the restlessness that comes from the questions of  _What’s next? Is this even_ real?

When they finally make it out of the clown house, all the questions suddenly come to fruition in Zayn’s mind, crowding out every other single thought. His face is burning, made all too obvious by the rush of cool air that hits them on the way out. “Sorry,” Zayn says again, pulling away his hand with a flinch, feeling a wave of nausea from the sudden self-consciousness that fills him to overflowing. He takes a step back, feeling too close to Liam to even think anymore.

“It’s okay,” Liam soothes, and he sounds so  _genuine_ that Zayn wants to cry, wants to reach his hand back out and grip onto Liam once more. 

But he doesn’t, he just gulps, giving a small nod as he continues to avoid eye contact.

“You know,” Liam goes on, taking one small step closer to Zayn, “If you want to, you can keep it there. You don’t have to let go just ‘cause we’re safe here.”

Zayn looks up, catching the light smile that dusts Liam’s lips, the look of fondness that he can’t seem to hide. It doesn’t  _seem_  like he’s kidding or just being nice. So Zayn shyly pulls his hand and body forward to intertwine their fingers together as he whispers, “Okay.” He gulps. “I’d like that.”

Liam rubs his thumb lightly on the back of Zayn’s hand. “I’d like that, too.”

There’s a pause, a moment of silence before Zayn remembers. “Louis is gonna make fun of me,” he groans as he sees Louis’ hungry eyes already on him. 

“Tell him to make fun of me first then,” Liam says, and it’s so  _simple,_ such a quick fix, that Zayn laughs, noting the air of chivalry that enters Liam’s voice at the words. 

“You can tell him yourself. He’s heading this way now,” Zayn giggles, hiding his flushed face in Liam’s bicep.

“I got you,” Liam repeats, giving his hand another light squeeze. 

And Zayn believes him. 


End file.
